New York– February 14, 2014 – Today, ReedPOP, the world’s leading purveyor of pop culture events, and Wikia, the social universe of fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant game expertise, announce the debut of a new cosplay championship at this year’s C2E2 in Chicago. The inaugural C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay will be the biggest and most prestigious costume contest in the United States, where veterans of the cosplay circuit and amateurs alike will battle it out for a shot at seizing the Crown and over $10,000 in cash and prizes. RedEye, part of Chicago’s Tribune Media Group, will serve as media sponsor for the inaugural event.

For the first time ever, C2E2 will invite cosplayers from across the U.S. to travel to the Windy City and have their creations critiqued by celebrity judges with established backgrounds in costume design and pop culture entertainment. This year’s judges include Ashley Eckstein (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Her Universe fashion line), Yaya Han (Heroes of Cosplay) and Nan Cibula-Jenkins (costume designer and head of costume design at The Theatre School at DePaul University). Fans will witness the spectacle and pageantry of a fun-filled competition celebrating the best cosplayers from around the country. This will not only be a celebration of pop culture, but a craftsmanship award show, with a pre-judging session and a stage display. All entries must represent a character or element from Comic Books, Movies & Television, Video Games, Anime or Fantasy.

“With some of the amazing costumes we’ve seen at our other shows, we thought it would make for a great showdown between the best of the best in cosplay,” said Lance Fensterman, Global Vice President of ReedPOP. “We’re thrilled to have teamed up with Wikia for the C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay to truly celebrate pop culture and the creativity of its Fans.”

“While cosplay has always been a passion of Wikia’s community of super-fans, the rise of ReedPOP’s events and our partnership around C2E2 allows us to engage even the most casual of enthusiasts,” said Eric Moro, Director of Programming, Entertainment at Wikia. “Starting on wikia.com and leading up to C2E2, the Cosplay Championships will put popular cultural on full display in all its glory. We’re excited to have our community play a central role.”

The debut of the C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay rides a surge in popularity for the cosplay culture and artistry most evident in Syfy channel’s docu-series “Heroes of Cosplay.” The C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay will be streamed live to a global audience on the C2E2 website.

Fans can register here for the C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay starting February 14. Each entrant will submit an application to be reviewed by the C2E2 team (one costume per entrant) and the top entrants will compete for top prize in Chicago. Visit our website for more information on rules and conditions.

About ReedPOP
ReedPOP is a boutique group within Reed Exhibitions, which is exclusively devoted to organizing events, launching and acquiring new shows, and partnering with premium brands in the pop culture arena. ReedPOP is dedicated to producing celebrations of popular culture throughout the world that transcend ordinary events by providing unique access and dynamic personal experiences for consumers and fans. The ReedPOP portfolio includes: New York Comic Con (NYCC), Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) Prime, East and Australia, Star Wars Celebration, and the UFC Fan Expo. In 2013 ReedPOP (has) added Star Wars Celebration Europe and PAX Australia to its rapidly expanding portfolio of international events. The staff at ReedPOP is a fan based group of professionals producing shows for other fans, thus making them uniquely qualified to service those with whom they share a common passion. ReedPOP is focused on bringing its expertise and knowledge to world communities in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific (including Australia).

About C2E2
The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo – also known as C2E2 – is a convention spanning the latest and greatest from the worlds of comics, movies, television, toys, anime, manga and video games. Bringing the best of popular culture to Downtown Chicago, C2E2’s show floor is packed with hundreds of exhibitors, panels and autograph sessions giving fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators and screening rooms featuring sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either the big or small screen!

About Wikia
Wikia, the social universe for fans, by fans, is the home for social fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant entertainment expertise. It is the definitive place for people to contribute to original sources of multi-media information around subjects they know and love. Using Wikia, anyone can form new communities around any subject or participate in over 300,000 existing communities by reading or contributing new content. With over 30 million pages of rich content, Wikia’s communities are the most authoritative about any pop culture topic on the Internet. Wikia’s game vertical (www.wikia.com/videogames) is a leading video-game focused network on the Web. Its movies, TV and books verticals (www.wikia.com/entertainment) are the fastest growing source of U.S. entertainment content around the world. Launched in 2006 by founders Jimmy Wales and AngelaBeesley, Wikia attracts more than 100 million global unique visitors per month and is ranked a Quantcast Top 30 and comScore Top 100 Internet site, as well as a Nielsen Top 10 social network. www.wikia.com or @wikia